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The one million Amiga owners were resourceful enough to find out about the machine on their own, and made the wise choice to buy one. The noises that are starting to come from Commodore are encouraging. The firm is committed to increasing the Amiga's visibility, working with third parties to make sure important half-finished products make it to market, and is working on some exciting new technologies that will keep the Amiga clearly ahead of the PC pack. The firm also has a new, highly motivated crew with impressive resumes. These guys have been hard at work. They are planning an expanded and more consistent ad campaign, are insuring that dealers are competent, and are committed to gaining the ever-precious customer mindshare. 1 think it will work. I wouldn't have left the safe confines of the general PC market if i didn't believe that Commodore has a real shot at the big time. The time is now for Commodore to make its move. The IBM and Apple PR machines are cranked up, and are attacking areas that the Amiga dominates, such as multimedia, desktop video, and animation. Unfortunately, the naive computer press is giving the world the impression that these firms are inventing these categories, and that these are “future" technologies. Hogwash! We all know that the Amiga has been excelling in these areas for years. It is up to Commodore to let the rest of the world in on this secret. If it doesn't, then customers will buy Macintoshes for advanced applications such as video. Then they'll watch helplessly as the machine sucks up all their cash reserves, only to bog down while processing the simplest of images. Here's what Commodore needs to do more of. Fortunately, it is already starting to crackle. President Harry Copper- tnan recently paid personal visits to the major trade publications that are now discovering these new application areas. You may he wise enough not to read these magazines, but about a zillion potential customers do. He also went armed with a strategy. He brought a long list of customers (maybe even you!) Who can demonstrate that the Amiga is the best machine ever made. Loaner machines are being sent out so these newshounds can see for themselves how pathetic other machines are when compared to the Amiga. Commodore also needs to respond every time the press ignores the Amiga when writing about applications that originated on the Amiga. It makes me sick to see Apple gel the credit for inventing multimedia. It is even more sickening to hear some PC review lunkhead froth at the mouth over a black-and- white animation package for the Mac. We reached the height of ridiculousness when the NEXT machine from Steve Jobs was introduced. Here was an example of hero worship at its worst. Jobs spends years developing a machine that is a blatant rip-ofl of the Amiga, and proceeds to get more press coverage than Gorbachev. The only difference between a NEXT machine and an Amiga is that the Amiga has color, software applications, users, and actually works. The NEXT machine, meanwhile, costs five to ten times as much, has an installed base of about 25, and, let's face it. Really isn't finished yet. The most painful instances, though, involve more generic technologies like multitasking. IBM and Microsoft grabbed countless gobs of headlines with OS 2. After years of hype, OS 2 proceeded to fall flat on its multitasking face. Where was the Amiga during all this? Patiently and quietly multitasking away. Commodore also has to convince the major PC software vendors that one million machines equals opportunity. Some of these jokers are writ ing for true niche machines like Sun workstations (no more than 200,000 installed, I'd bet) and the NEXT machine (you could fit its installed base in a Volkswagen Beetle). Participation by major vendors would mean mainstream software for the Amiga, and a shot at the huge general-purpose business market that continues to suffer under the yoke of IBM PC tyranny. Come on, Commodore. The Amiga deserves better. Fortunately, we think with the new crew, it is starting to get it!